Photos: The scene in Afghanistan as the Taliban takes control of Kabul

Aug. 22

People stand on a barrier outside Kabul airport.

Reuters TV

Aug. 21

A U.S. Marine opens a meal ready-to-eat for children to eat during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport.

U.S. Marines/Reuters

Aug. 21

British troops work with the U.S. military to evacuate eligible civilians and their families in Kabul.

Aug. 18

Spanish citizens and Afghans board a Spanish military plane at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

SPAIN MINISTRY OF DEFENSE/via REUTERS

Aug. 18

Taliban fighters patrol the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in Kabul.

Rahmat Gul/AP

Aug. 18

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, center left, senior Haqqani group leader Anas Haqqani, center right, Abdullah Abdullah, second right, head of Afghanistan's National Reconciliation Council and former government negotiator with the Taliban, and others in the Taliban delegation, meet in Kabul.

Taliban/AP

Aug. 17

French soldiers stand guard near a military plane at the airport in Kabul as they arrive to evacuate French and Afghan nationals.

AFP/Getty Images

Aug. 17

Afghan security officials stand guard as people gather outside Kabul airport to flee the country.

EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Aug. 17

Afghans wait outside Kabul airport to flee the country.

EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Aug. 17

Indian nationals sit aboard an Indian military aircraft at the airport in Kabul.

AFP/Getty Images

Aug. 17

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid talks with journalists during a news conference in Kabul.

EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Aug. 16

Taliban fighters are seen on the back of a vehicle in Kabul.

EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Aug. 16

People try to get into Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

Reuters

Aug. 16

This satellite image shows a traffic jam and crowds at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport.

Satellite Image ©2021 Maxar Tech/AFP/Getty Images

Aug. 16

A U.S. soldier points his gun toward an Afghan passenger at the Kabul airport. U.S. troops securing the airport for evacuations amid a Taliban takeover of the city were fired on at least twice, and one American service member may have been wounded, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said at a briefing with reporters

Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images

Aug. 16

A man pulls a girl up as they try to get into Kabul airport.

Reuters

Aug. 16

Afghans crowd the tarmac of the Kabul airport to flee the country.

AFP/Getty Images

Aug. 16

This satellite image shows crowds on the tarmac of Kabul International Airport.

Maxar Technologies/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Aug. 16

Afghan people climb atop a plane as they wait at Kabul airport.

Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images

Aug. 16

Afghan passengers sit inside a plane as they wait to leave the Kabul airport.

AFP/Getty Images

Aug. 16

Hundreds of people run alongside a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane as it moves down a runway of the international airport in Kabul.

Verified UGC/AP

Aug. 16

An Afghan child walks near military uniforms on the tarmac as he and elders wait to leave Kabul airport.

Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images

Aug. 16

U.S. soldiers rest as Afghan people wait to leave the Kabul airport.

Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images

Aug. 16

A Taliban fighter, right, searches the bags of people coming out of the Kabul airport.

Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images

Aug. 16

Qari Muhammad Hanif, Taliban director of cultural and information department, second from right against far wall, talks with journalists in Jalalabad.

EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Aug. 16

British citizens and dual nationals residing in Afghanistan board a military plane for evacuation from the Kabul airport.

UK Mod Crown Copyright 2021/Reuters

Aug. 16

Arif Oryakhail, left, an Afghan-born Italian responsible for the health of staffers at Kabul's Italian agency for cooperation and development office, embraces Giovanni Grandi at Rome's Fiumicino international airport after they disembarked from Kabul with a group including Italian diplomats and civilians and Afghan collaborators.

Riccardo De Luca/AP

Aug. 15

Taliban fighters take control of the presidential palace in Kabul after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

Zabi Karimi/AP

Aug. 15

A U.S. Chinook helicopter flies near the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Helicopters are landing at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul as diplomatic vehicles leave the compound.

Rahmat Gul/AP

Aug. 15

Members of the British Army arriving in Kabul to assist in evacuating British nationals and entitled people.

Leading Hand Ben Shread/AFP/Getty Images

Aug. 15

Evacuees crowd inside a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft carrying some 640 people to Doha, Qatar, from Kabul.

Courtesy of Defense One/Reuters

Afghan security forces stand guard at the entrance gate of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

Reuters

Aug. 15

People rush to their homes after the Taliban entered Kabul.

EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Aug. 15

Afghans in Kabul wait in long lines for hours to try to withdraw money from Kabul Bank.

Rahmat Gul/AP

Aug. 15

People arrive at the Friendship Gate crossing point at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border town of Chaman, Pakistan.

Akhter Gulfam/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Aug. 15

Soldiers from Afghan Security forces travel on a armed vehicle along a road in Panjshir province of Afghanistan.

Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP/Getty Images

Aug. 15

Taliban fighters raise their flag at the Ghazni provincial governor's house in Ghazni, Afghanistan.

Gulabuddin Amiri/AP

Aug. 15

Ahmadullah Muttaqi, center-left, Taliban's director for information and culture talks with journalists after Roohullah Khanzada, center, the last governor of Afghanistan's political government in Kandahar and Karimullah Naqibi the Afghan government's member of the Qatar peace negotiating team, surrendered to the Taliban, in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Aug. 14

Taliban militants gather a day after taking control of Kandahar.

EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Aug. 14

A Taliban fighter stands guard on a street in Herat.

AFP/Getty Images

Aug. 14

Afghan policemen stand guard at a checkpoint along the road in Kabul.

Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images

Aug. 14

Afghans in Kabul shop for fruit at days end under a portrait of President Ashraf Ghani.

Victor J. Blue/For The Washington Post

Aug. 14

Afghans rush home at the end of the day in Kabul.

Victor J. Blue/For The Washington Post

Aug. 14

Afghan army soldiers ride a pickup through a Kabul park.

Victor J. Blue/For The Washington Post

Aug. 14

Taliban fighters ride on the back of a vehicle in Herat, west of Kabul, after taking the province from the Afghan government.

Hamed Sarfarazi/AP

Aug. 14

A man sells Taliban flags in Herat.

Hamed Sarfarazi/AP

Aug. 14

Afghans wait in long lines for hours at a passport office in Kabul as many are desperate to have their travel documents ready.

Paula Bronstein/Getty Images/Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

Aug. 14

Passengers walk to the departures terminal of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

Rahmat Gul/AP

Aug. 14

An Ariana Afghan Airlines plane takes off from the Kabul airport.

Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images

Aug. 14

President Ashraf Ghani, center right, and acting defense minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi visit the military corps in Kabul.

Afghan Presidential Palace/Reuters

Aug. 14

A Taliban fighter stands guard in the city of Ghazni.

Reuters

Aug. 14

A deserted road, showing a monument of former Mujahadeen commander Ahmad Shah Masood, in Mazar-e Sharif, the provincial capital of Balkh province.

EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Aug. 14

Pakistani soldiers stand guard as stranded Afghan nationals return to Afghanistan at the border crossing point in Chaman, Pakistan, after the Taliban took control of the Afghanistan border town in a rapid offensive across the country.

AFP/Getty Images

Aug. 14

A Pakistani soldier, left, stands guard as stranded Afghan nationals arrive to return to Afghanistan at the border crossing point in Chaman.

AFP/Getty Images

Aug. 13

Taliban militants gather around a provincial government's office after taking control of Herat. The Taliban claimed they captured Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city, in their most significant military breakthrough so far since the insurgents began their offensive after foreign troops started withdrawing in May 2021.

EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Aug. 13

Taliban fighters stand guard over surrendered Afghan security forces in the city of Ghazni.

Gulabuddin Amiri/AP

Aug. 13

Displaced Afghans, from the northern provinces, register with authorities at a makeshift IDP camp at Share-e-Naw park in Kabul.

Paula Bronstein/Getty Images/Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

Aug. 13

Internally-displaced Afghans, who fled their home due to fighting between the Taliban and Afghan security personnel, take refuge in a public park in Kabul. The Taliban completed their sweep of the country's south on Friday, as they took four more provincial capitals in a lightning offensive that is gradually encircling Kabul, just weeks before the United States is set to officially end its two-decade war.

Rahmat Gul/AP

Aug. 13

Displaced Afghan women and children, from Kunduz, pray at a mosque that is sheltering them in Kabul.

Paula Bronstein/Getty Images/Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting